Middle Scythian period

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The retreat of the Scythians from Ciscaucasia[1] and the arrival of the Sauromatian incomers into the Pontic Steppe in the late 6th century BC caused significant cultural changes in Scythia, giving rise to the Middle Scythian period or Classical Scythian period,[2] which itself was a hybrid culture originating from a combination of a continuation of the material culture reflected in the Ciscaucasian Scythian burials with Sauromatian elements.[3]

Among the changes in Scythia in this period was a significant increase in the number of monumental burials: it was from the Middle Scythian period that the largest number of Scythian burials in the Pontic Steppe were made, with the Scythian upper classes starting to bury their dead within the Pontic Steppe itself largely in the region of the rapids of the Borysthenēs river (possibly the country of Gerrhos mentioned by Herodotus), although some aristocratic burials were also located in the forest steppes.[4] These burials, which included horse sacrifices, were continuations of the Ciscaucasian burial traditions.[5][6] Scythian burials from this period include:[7]

Consolidation

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As a result of the arrival of the Sauromatian incomers, and due to the need to resist Persian encroachment, the Scythian kingdom underwent political consolidation in the early 5th century BC,[8] during which it underwent the most significant of its economic, political, social, and cultural development by completing its evolution from a tribal confederation into an early state polity[9][10] capable of dealing with the polities threatening or trading with it in an effective way;[11] during this period, the Scythian kings increased their power and wealth by concentrating economic power under their authority.[12]

It was also during this period that the control of the Scythians over the western part of their kingdom became heavier and more coercive with respect to the sedentary agricultural peoples living to the west of the Borysthenēs.[13]

Expansionism

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A consequence of this consolidation of the Scythian kingdom was an increase in its expansionism and militarism.[14]

In Thrace

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In the west, nearby Thrace became a target of Scythian expansion following the complete Achaemenid retreat from Europe,[15][14] with the Scythians coming into conflict with the various Thracian peoples during the 5th century BC,[15] and gaining free access of the Wallachian and Moldavian Steppes[16] while also establishing a presence to the south of the Istros river, around Kallatis and Dionysopolis.[17]

In 496 BC, the Scythians launched a raid until as far south as the Thracian Chersonese on the Hellespont.[18]

The Scythians' inroads in Thrace were however soon stopped by the emergence of the Odrysian kingdom in this region, following which the Scythian and Odrysian kingdoms mutually established the Istros as their common border after concluding friendly and mutually advantageous relations with each other some time around c. 480 BC:[17][19] from then on, the contacts between the Scythians and Thracians deepened, with each borrowing from the other's art and lifestyle; marriage between the Scythian and Odrysian aristocracies were also concluded,[17] including between their respective royal dynasties, with the Scythian king Ariapeithes marrying a daughter of the Odrysian kingdom's founding king Tērēs I[15][14] some time between c. 480 and c. 460 BC.[19]

At some point between c. 475 and c. 460 BC,[19] Ariapeithes was killed by the Agathyrsian king Spargapeithes,[20] after which he was succeeded as king by his son Scyles,[21] whose mother was a Greek woman[22] from Histria.[23]

In Sindica

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To the southeast, the Scythians came into conflict with their splinter tribe of the Sindi, with whom they fought by crossing the frozen Cimmerian Bosporus during the winter.[15]

In the forest steppe

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A second direction where the Scythian kingdom expanded was in the north and north-west: the Scythian kingdom had continued its attempts to impose its rule on the forest steppe peoples throughout the 7th and 6th centuries BC, and by the 5th century BC, it was finally able to complete the process of subjugating the groups of these populations living to the west of the Borysthenēs after destroying their fortified settlements,[24] which were subsequently abandoned.[25]

With the completion of the subjugation of the forest steppe by the Scythians, the various ethnic groups inhabiting this region interacted to the point that their cultures fused with that of the Scythians, leading to the originally Scythian-type burials in kurgans which had originated in Ciscaucasia becoming widespread among the forest steppe populations.[26]

During the 5th century BC, Scythian rule over the forest steppe people became increadingly dominating and coercive, leading to a decline of their sedentary agrarian lifestyle, especially in the region of the right bank of the Borysthenēs, where their settlements disintegrated and became fewer in number.[27] This in turn resulted in a reduction in the importation of Greek goods by the peoples of the forest steppe in the 5th century BC.[28]

The presence of Scythian kurgans from the site corresponding to modern Boryspil attests that the Scythians also appear to have captured territories from the tribes of the forest steppe at this time.[29]

On the Pontic coast

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The peaceful relations which had until then prevailed between the Scythian kingdom and the Greek colonies of the northern Pontic region came to an end during the period of expansionism in the early 5th century BC, when the Scythian kings for the first time started trying to impose their rule over the Greek colonies.[14] In response to hostility from the Scythian kingdom, the Greek cities erected defensive installations while their khōrai were destroyed or abandoned, meaning that they lost their agricultural production base, while burials of men killed by Scythian arrows started appearing in their nekropoleis.[30]

At the same time, because the Scythian kingdom still needed to trade with the Greeks in the lower Tanais region, in the early 5th century BC it replaced the formerly destroyed Greek colony of Krēmnoi with a Scythian settlement for this purpose, located at the site corresponding to present-day Yelizavetovskaya [ru][14] in the delta of the Tanais river.[31] The population of this 40 hectare settlement was composed mostly of Scythians and a minority community of Greek merchants, with a smaller fortified section of this city being the residence of the local Scythian aristocrats, thus putting trade in this region directly under the control of the Scythian kingdom.[14][31]

The hold of the Scythian kingdom on the western part of the northern Pontic region became firmer under the reign of the king Scyles,[17] who was successfully able to impose Scythian rule on the Greek colonies in the northwestern Pontic coastal region and western Crimea, such as Nikōnion, Tyras, Pontic Olbia, and Kerkinitis, so that Scyles was minting coins at Nikōnion while Kerkinitis was paying tribute to the Scythian kingdom.[17][14]

There was consequently a considerable migration of Scythians into Pontic Olbia at this time,[32][17] and Scyles himself possessed a residence in Olbia which he would visit every year.[14] The Greek colonies of the Black Sea coast thus continued adhering to their Hellenic culture while their population was very mixed, with Scythians being active at all levels of these cities, which even attracted Scythian aristocrats.[22] During this period Greek influences also became more significant among the Scythians, especially among the aristocracy, while the inhabitants of the cities of the north shore of the Black Sea themselves borrowed the use of Scythian bows and akīnakēs swords.[33]

The control of Scyles over the city of Nikōnion corresponded to the period when it was a member of the Delian League, thus putting it under the simultaneous hegemony of both the Scythian kingdom and the Greek city of Athens. This, as well as the contacts established by Athens in the Tauric Chersonese during this period, allowed the Scythian kingdom to engage in indirect relations with Athens when it was at the height of its power.[17] In consequence, a community of Scythians also lived in Athens at this time and was active at all levels of society, as attested by the presence of graves of deceased Scythians in the cemetery of the Kerameikos, where a Scythian retainer had also been buried in the grave precinct of his master.[34]

In the region of the Cimmerian Bosporus, while the Scythian kingdom was initially able to capture Nymphaion, it was however less successful at conquering the other Greek colonies there, where around 30 cities, including Myrmēkion, Tyritakē, and Porthmeus, banded together into an alliance under the leadership of Pantikapaion, built or strengthened their city walls, and successfully defended their independence. After this, they united into the Bosporan kingdom with Pantikapaion as its capital so as to manage their trade ventures and to organise their common defence against the Scythians.[35][14][36] The Bosporan kingdom soon became a centre of production for Scythian customers living in the steppes, and, being a significant outpost of Greek culture, it therefore influenced both the Scythians and the Sindi by contributing to the development of Scythian art and style.[35]

Despite the conflicts between the Scythian kingdom and the Greek cities, mutually beneficial exchanges between the Scythians, Maeotians and Greeks continued, and, throughout the Pontic Steppe, Scythians and Greeks lived and died in the same communities,[37] with the presence of Scythian burials in this city's necropolis attesting of the presence of marriages between the ruling elite of Nymphaion and the Scythian aristocracy.[14]

Commercial activities

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Grain trading

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As result of these expansionist ventures, the Scythian kingdom, whose core population lived in the steppe between the forest steppe and the coastal region and therefore dominated these latter two regions, implemented an economic policy through a division of labour according to which:[38][10][14]

  • the settled populations of the forest steppe produced grain, which until then they were allowed to freely sell, but were now obliged to offer to the Scythian aristocracy as tribute;
  • this grain offered in tribute was then shipped through the Borysthenēs and Hypanis rivers to Pontic Olbia, Tyras, and Nikōnion;
  • these latter Greek cities, who had to specialise in trading after having lost their agricultural lands, in turn acted as trading agents by selling the grain at a profit for themselves.

The outbreak of the Peloponnesian War in Greece proper in 431 BC to some extent further increased the importance of the Pontic Steppe in supplying grain to Greece, so that the Bosporan kingdom became the main supplier of grain to Greece, and the Scythian kingdom in turn became an important seller of grain to the Bosporan kingdom: the Scythian nomadic aristocracy thus became the main intermediary in providing to the Bosporan kingdom the grain produced from the fertile and traditionally agricultural regions of the forest steppe and obtained through cultivation within the Scythian kingdom itself.[9]

Slave trading

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In the 5th century itself, the Greek cities in the Aegean Sea had started to import slaves from Scythia immediately after the end of the Persian invasions of Greece. The Greek cities acted as slave trade hubs but did not themselves capture slaves, and instead depended on the Scythian rulers to acquire slaves for them:[39][40] although Scythian society was not heavily dependent on slaves, unlike the Greeks, the Scythian aristocrats nonetheless still found it profitable to acquire slaves from their subordinate tribes or through military raids in the forest steppe, who were then brought to Pontic Olbia, where they were sold to Greek merchants.[39][40][41]

An Attic red-figure vase-painting of a Scythian archer. Epiktetos, 520–500 BC.[42]

Among the Scythian slaves bought by the Greeks, one particular group was bought immediately after the Battle of Salamis by the city of Athens,[43] where they constituted an organisation of public slaves employed by the city itself as an urban police force who acted as watchmen and guards and maintained order among the general publics. These "Scythian archers" would round up unwilling citizens and kettle them to vote, could be called by the chairman of the Ekklēsia to remove anyone speaking for too long, and had the power to make arrests.[44]

Other Scythian exports

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In addition to slaves, the Scythians sold cattle and animal products to the Greeks.[45]

Import of Greek goods

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The Greek colonies during this time were the main suppliers of luxury goods and art to the Scythians,[46] and Greek-type gold objects from Scythian graves of this period may thus have originated as gifts from Greek dependants or Greek families allied to Scythian aristocrats which had been offered to these aristocrats as part of complex gifting traditions used to make and secure fealty bonds or form family ties through marriage.[37]

Trade with the Greeks especially created a thriving demand for wine in Scythia:[47] In exchange for slaves, the Greeks sold various consumer goods to the Scythians, the most prominent among these being wine. The island of Chios in the Aegean Sea, especially, produced wine to be sold to the Scythians, in exchange of which slaves from Scythia were sold in the island's very prominent slave market.[41]

Other commodities sold by the Greeks to the Scythians included fabrics, vessels, decorations made of precious metals, bronze items, and black burnished pottery.[45]

Economic prosperity

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Under these conditions, the grain and slave trade continued, and Pontic Olbia not only did not decline, but instead experienced economic prosperity.[14][41]

The Scythian aristocracy also derived immense revenue from these commercial activities with the Greeks,[29] most especially from the grain trade,[48][12][14] with Scythian coins struck in Greek cities bearing the images of ears of grain.[48] This prosperity of the Scythian aristocracy is attested by how Scythian art in this period largely celebrated the military success of the Scythian mounted warriors,[12][28] as well as by how the lavish aristocratic burials progressively included more relatives, retainers, and were richly furnished with grave goods, especially imported ones, consisting of gold jewellery, silver and gold objects, including fine Greek-made toreutics, vessels and jewellery, and gold-plated weapons.[49]

There was a very significant stratification in Scythia in terms of social and property among both the aristocratic and commoner the Scythians during this period, and Scythian commoners did not obtain any benefits from this trade, with luxury goods being absent from their tombs.[9] That this economic success was limited to the Scythian aristocracy is reflected by how Scythian art in this period largely portrayed elements of prestige, as well as the divinisation of royal power, the cults of ancestral heroes, and celebrated military valour.[50]

Greek influence

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Scythian warrior with axe, bow, and spear. Possibly Greek work 4th-2nd century BCE (archaic). Marble with red paint and gold leaf

A consequence of the Scythians' close contacts with the Greek cities and of their import of Greek-manufactured art and luxury goods was that Greek art significantly influenced Scythian art and artistic preferences, in turn causing a progressive Hellenisation of the Scythian aristocracy.[46][14]

The Greek supply of luxury goods in turn influenced Scythian art,[46] so that the vegetal motifs which the Greek artisans used to decorate these goods were organically integrated into the "Animal Style" art of the Scythians and became used in works produced by both Greek and Scythian craftsmen.[51][14]

Greek influence thus became a factor which shaped the evolution of Scythian weapons and horse harnesses, which were developed following Scythian norms and slowly perfected so they could be used more effectively: the Scythian composite armour, for example, was fitted with Greek-type shoulder guards in the 5th century BC.[51]

Early sedentarisation

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Beginning the 6th century BC, a period of deepening ties and the intensification of trade with the already sedentary Greeks led to the development of sedentary forms of economy in the more nomadic parts of the Scythian kingdom;[25][52] the climate of the steppe around this time also became warmer and wetter, which caused grass which the nomads to rear their large herds of animals to grow abundance, thus allowing them to settle down in the steppe itself;[53][54][55] these factors acted as catalysts for the process of sedentarisation of many nomadic Scythians which started during the Middle Scythian period in the late 5th century BC.[56]

The Scythian aristocracy, who played an important role in the grain trade and were its primary profiters,[48] were investing in increasing the grain production within the Scythian kingdom,[9] and therefore expanded cereal cultivations to the regions adjacent to the Bosporan kingdom through which they exported their grain, especially in the Tauric Chersonese.[48] This policy acted as a catalyst for the intensification of the process of sedentarisation of the Scythians, especially along the reaches of the lower Borysthenēs where the terrain was propitious for agriculture.[9]

This process of sedentarisation was especially concentrated in the eastern part of the Tauric Chersonese, near the cities of the Bosporan Kingdom, but it was also occurring elsewhere in Scythia, with several village-sites forming on the left bank of the estuary of the Tyras near Nikōnion, and nomadic Scythians who had settled down had founded along the banks of the Borysthenēs and the smaller rivers of the steppe small settlements where were cultivated large amounts of crops such as wheat, millet and barley.[29][25]

Consequently, part of the nomadic Scythians were adopting a settled lifestyle during the 5th century BC, especially along the reaches of the lower Borysthenēs where the terrain was propitious for agriculture, and where they formed small unfortified settlements. Part of the population of the khōrai of Pontic Olbia at this time was also composed of settled Scythians.[57][14] The archaeological evidence suggests that the population of the Tauric Chersonese, most of whom were Scythians who had settled down to farm, during this time increased by 600%, especially in the Trachean Chersonese.[55][58][28]

The development sedentarisation and settlement-formation finally led to the foundation in the late 5th and early 4th centuries BC of several new city-sites:[59][60][14] among these settlements were important city-sites located on major routes which provided access to the major rivers of Scythia,[61] and corresponding to present-day Yelizavetovskaya at the mouth of the Tanais, Traxtemyriv on the upper Borysthenēs, Nadlymansʹke near the estuary of Tyras, Bilsk on the Vorskla river,[52] and Kamianka at the confluence of the Borysthenēs and its tributary of the Konka river.[14]

Despite this significant sedentarisation of the nomads, the majority of Scythians during this time and until the 3rd century BC however still remained composed of nomads.[29][57]

The city of Kamianka

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Internal tribal migrations within the Scythian kingdom during the 5th century BC appear to have caused central power to move to the region of the bend of the Borysthenēs,[62] so that much of the Scythian settlements of the 5th and 4th centuries BC were located in the valley of the Borysthenēs and of its tributaries until the coastal region:[3] the site of Kamianka, located in the Borysthenēs bend region and built in the late 5th century BC, was the largest and most important of the Scythian city-sites,[63][64] measuring 12 square kilometres, and was protected by earthen ramparts, moats, the rivers and the salt lake of Bilozerka.[65]

The "acropolis" of Kamianka was located high above the Konka river and was separated from the outer city by double-shell earthworks and a rampart topped by a Greek-style mudbrick wall. Large amounts of Greek red-figure pottery, wine amphorae, black lacquerware, krātēres for mixing wine and water, imported jewellery, and bones of game animals killed during hunts have been found in the "acropolis" of Kamianka by archaeologists,[25][66][67] implying that it was the location of the seasonal royal Scythian headquarters;[68] much of the goods from the "acropolis" of Kamianka, such as the Greek pottery, were Bosporan-imported, attesting of the close links between the Scythian and Bosporan kingdoms at this time.[59]

By the Middle Scythian period, the centre of Scythian metallurgy had shifted into the steppe,[57] in the "outer city" of Kamianka, which was considerably larger than the acropolis,[52] and was the residence of an agriculturalist population as well as of the metalsmiths who manufactured objects from copper, lead and zinc, gold- and silverwork, such as tools, simple jewellery, as well as weapons and armour and horse trappings used by the nomadic population of the steppe.[69] Kamianka contained several blacksmiths' workshops which were contentrated into craftsmens' quarters,[70] with 900 hectares of the city being dedicated to industrial scale metal production.[61]

An open tract in was also located in the southeast of the "outer city," and was perhaps used for grazing cattle, sheep and goats[52] or for defensive purposes.[60]

Thus, the city of Kamianka had become the economic, political and commercial capital of the Scythian kingdom in the late 5th century BC.[29][57]

The city of Yelizavetovskaya

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During this period, in the 5th to early 4th centuries BC, the site corresponding to present-day Yelizavetovskaya had become a well-fortified city where resided the local Scythian clan and tribal lords, and which functioned as the Scythian kingdom's administrative, commercial and manufacturing centre for the lower Tanais and northern Maeotian sea region.[29][57]

Succession struggle

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Some time around c. 440 BC,[19] Scyles was overthrown by his half-brother Octamasadas, who was himself the son of Ariapeithes and of the daughter of the Odrysian king Tērēs I.[15][21][14] Scyles fled to the Odrysian kingdom, but Tērēs I's son and successor to the Odrysian kingship, Sitalkēs, met his nephew Octamasadas on the Odrysian-Scythian border on the Istros river, where Sitalkēs handed to him his half-brother Scyles, was executed by Octamasadas, while Octamasadas himself handed to Sitalkēs one of his uncles, a brother of Sitalkēs who had fled to Scythia.[71]

Nothing is known about the third son of Ariapeithes, Oricus, other than that his mother was a Scythian woman and that he was likely the youngest son of Ariapeithes.[21][19] Oricus might have even never become king,[14] and some time after Octamasadas ousted Scyles, coins were minted in Pontic Olbia bearing the name of one Eminakos, who was either a governor of Olbia for Octamasadas or a successor of his.[32][14]

External relations

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As a result of the Scythian kingdom's prosperity during this period, neighbouring populations borrowed elements of Scythian culture.[33]

With Central and Western Europe

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The populations of Central and Western Europe were still borrowing from the Scythians at this time, and Scythian-type arrowheads were found in these regions.[33]

With Thrace

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Scythian vessel from Voronež, 4th century BC. Hermitage Museum.

Thanks to the close family connections of Octamasadas to the Thracian Odrysian dynasty through his mother, contacts between the Scythian kingdom and Odrysian-ruled Thrace intensified during the period from c. 440 to c. 400 BC.[72]

Significant Thracian influence consequently appeared in the grave goods of Scythian kurgans made of precious metals,[33] with the art of Scythian bridle trappings from this period exhibiting influences from Thracian art.[73] Thracian influence on Scythian culture was also visible in the 5th century BC in the form of Scythian production of single-bladed swords based on Thracian battle knives which had handles and crosspieces typical of the Scythian akīnakai.[51]

And, due to the influential position of the Scythian kingdom at this time, the Thracian Getae of the Carpathian and Balkan regions were importing large amounts of Scythian-manufactured weapons and horse equipment.[33]

With the Bosporan kingdom

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Soon after the accession of Octamasadas around c. 440 BC, a Thracian aristocrat residing in Pantikapaion named Spartocus seized leadership of the Bosporan kingdom in c. 438 BC,[74][36] becoming the first member of the Spartocid dynasty to rule the Bosporan kingdom.[74] with the rise of the Thracian Spartocus I being possibly connected to the assumption of the pro-Odrysian Octamasadas as king of Scythia.[72]

These changes in the Bosporan Kingdom also led to cultural changes within it in the late 5th century BC, so that the Greek customs which had until then been normative there gave way to more Scythian ones.[75]

Under the Spartocid dynasty, the Bosporan kingdom would thrive and maintain stable military, political and economic relations with the Scythian kingdom[76] which allowed it, with Scythian support, to be able expand its rule to the whole Trachean and Sindic Chersoneses and conquer several non-Greek territories on the Asian side of the Cimmerian Bosporus[58][14] so that it soon covered a wide territory stretching across the whole eastern coast of the Maeotian Sea till the mouth of the Tanais river in the north.[36]

This process transformed the Bosporan kingdom into a cosmopolitan realm whose populations consisted of Greeks descended not only from the original settlers in the region as well as more recently arrived Athenian colonists, but also of Hellenised Thracians; members of this population in turn intermarried with Scythians from the Tauric Chersonese and Sauromatians living to the east of the Tanais river, which further added to the ethnic diversity of the Bosporan Kingdom.[77]

It was then that Pontic Olbia started declining, partly due to the instability within the Scythian steppe to its north, but also because most of the trade, including the grain exports of the Scythian kingdom,[48] passing through Oblia until then shifted to transiting through the cities of the Cimmerian Bosporus constiting the Bosporan Kingdom at this time.[78][52]

The Scythians instead started importing ornaments, expensive weapons, horse harness decorations, cultic vessels made of previous metals, and pottery mostly manufactured in Pantikapaion in the Bosporan kingdom, and much of the grave goods, such as finely decorated vases, rhyta, toreutics, headgear and footwear for the Scythian aristocracy, jewellery, and decorative plaques for gōrytoi and to decorate clothing, had been made in Bosporan Greek workshops,[79][51] whose products thus replaced Olbian ones.[80]

Thus, while Pontic Olbia was slowly declining, the trade between the Scythian and Bosporan kingdom continued to thrive, with the cities of the Cimmerian Bosporus being the main transit point through which Pontic Scythia was importing luxury goods from Thrace and fine tableware and wine from Greece, and where were located the workshops of the Greek craftsmen who produced luxurious goldwork for the new Scythian aristocracy.[81]

Around that same time, Athenian commercial influence in the Bosporan Kingdom started declining, and, despite Athens sending someone as renowned as Pericles to negotiate, its influence in the Bosporan Kingdom had fully come to an end by the time that it had lost the Peloponnesian War in 404 BC.[75]

With Athens

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However, following Athens's defeat in the Peloponnesian War, the Greeks living on the north shore of the Black Sea started buying more grain from the Scythians to export to Athens to end the food shortage there, resulting in the growth of trade with the Greek cities of the northern Black Sea.[10]

Second wave of Sauromatian immigration

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With the pressure of groups of the Massagetae moving into the countries of the Sauromatians in the regions between the Ural Mountains and the Tanais river continuing,[82] sometime between c. 430 and c. 400 BC, a second wave of migration of Sauromatians from the Araxes Steppe entered Scythia, where these newcomers intermarried with the Scythian tribes already present there[59][14] after which they may possibly have established themselves as the new ruling aristocracy of the Scythian kingdom.[64][81]

The Royal Scythians might possibly left the Borysthenēs river valley under pressure from the new Sauromatian incomers and moved to the west, where they consolidated themselves on the coastal area to the west of the Hypanis river, and established their new headquarters in the northwestmost part of Thracian coast located immediately to the south of the Istros river.[59][81] The sedendary communities of the forest steppe also came under pressure from this new wave of nomadic incomers.[10]

Period of instability

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The immigration into Scythia of the new wave of Sauromatian arrivants as well as the internal conflicts among the Scythians themselves, caused a temporary destabilisation of the Scythian kingdom[14] which caused it to lose control of the Greek cities on the north shores of the Black Sea. Thus, the Greek colonies no longer faced any military threats from the Scythians, as evidenced by how Pontic Olbia, Nikōnion, and Tyras started to not only rebuild their khōrai, but even expanded them during the late 5th and early 4th centuries BC.[14] It was also at this time that the Scythian kingdom lost control over Nymphaion, which was annexed by the Bosporan kingdom, which had itself been expanding its territories on the Asian side of the Cimmerian Bosporus.[14]

The second wave of Sauromatian immigration had however also brought an end to the earlier trade routes of Scythia linking Olbia to the rich region of the middle Borysthenēs river where were located the markets it served, thus reducing its influence to a small coastal area between the Tyras and Borysthenēs rivers and initiating a period of slow decline for this city.[81][52]

Golden Age

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The period of instability ended soon, and Scythian culture experienced a period of prosperity during the 4th century BC,[15][14] which was an unusually calm period in the broader Pontic and Danubian regions.[28]

Scythian gold comb from Solokha, early 4th century BC

About 3,000 Scythian funerary monuments from the 4th century BC, and, out of those 2,300 already excavated by archaeologists in the 1980s, nearly 2,000 dated from this period while a smaller number dated from the preceding 5th century BC:[83] with most Scythian monuments and the richest Scythian royal burials dating from this period,[14] as exemplified by the lavish Čortomlyk mohyla [uk].[28]

Most of the Scythian royal tombs of the 5th and 4th centuries BC were largely located in the country of Gerrhos, which corresponds to Borysthenēs river valley within a 45 kilometre wide radius from the river's rapids that prevent further northwards navigation on the river.[84] It is from the 4th century BC itself that can be dated two of the most lavishly furnished groups of Scythian burials in the region of the Borysthenēs rapids:[85][14]

Trade with the Greeks

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This height of Scythian power corresponded to a time of unprecedented prosperity for the Greek colonies of the northern Black Sea, with whom the relations of the Scythian kingdom remained peaceful during this period: there was high demand for the Greek cities' trade goods, grains, slaves, and fish, thanks to which the relations between the Pontic and Aegean regions, especially with Athens, were flourishing.[17]

Scythian warrior, from Kul-Oba.

Although the Greek cities of the coast extended their territories considerably at this time, this did not infringe on the Scythians, who still possessed abundant pastures and whose settlements were still thriving.[28] A large number of the toreutics used by the Scythians themselves as aristocratic and royal grave goods were during this period being made by Greek craftsmen, attesting of the strong Greek influence that the Scythians were then coming under and of the increasingly pronounced Hellenisation of the Scythian upper classes.[14] Consequently, Scythian culture, especially that of the aristocracy, experienced rapidly-occurring extensive Hellenisation as a result of these extensive contacts with the Greek colonies on the Black Sea shore in the 4th century BC.[14]

Scytho-Bosporan relations

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The rule of the Spartocid dynasty in the Bosporan Kingdom under the kings Leukon I, Spartocus II and Pairisadēs I was also favourable for the Scythian kingdom because they provided stability which allowed both the Scythian and Bosporan kingdoms to flourish.[28] Leukon employed Scythians in his army,[28] and he was able to capture Theodosia with the help of Scythian horse cavalry, which he claimed to trust more than his own army.[76]

Extensive contacts existed between the Scythian and Bosporan nobilities,[28] possibly including dynastic marriages between the Scythian and Bosporan royalty:[14] the rich burial of Kul-Oba belonged to one such Scythian noble who had close family ties to a member of the Bosporan aristocracy or even the ruling Spartocid dynasty, and who therefore chose to be buried at Kul-Oba following Scythian rites in a Greek-style tomb carved from stone.[14][22]

During this time, and with the support of the Scythian kings, the sedentarised Scythian farmers sold large amounts of grain reaching up to 16,000 tonnes to Pantikapaion, who in turn sold this grain to Athens in mainland Greece.[76] The dealings between mainland Greece and the northern Pontic region were significant enough that the Athenian Dēmosthenēs had significant commercial endeavours in the Bosporan kingdom, from where he received a 1000 medimnoi of wheat per year, and he had the statues of the Bosporan rulers Pairisadēs I, Satyros I and Gorgippos insalled in the Athenian market.[28]

Dēmosthenēs himself had had a Scythian maternal grandmother,[86] and his political opponents Dinarchus and Aeschines went so far as to launch racist attacks against Dēmosthenēs by referring to his Scythian ancestry to attempt discrediting him.[28][86]

Early Sarmatian immigration

[edit]

The Scythian kingdom experienced an early wave of immigration by a related Iranic nomadic people, the Sarmatians, during the 4th century BC, to the Pontic steppe.[28][87][84] This slow flow of Sarmatian immigration continued during the late 4th and early 3rd centuries BC,[84][87] but these small and isolated groups did not negatively affect its hegemony.[28]

The reign of Ateas

[edit]
Coin of the Scythian king Ateas
Reverse: depicting a mounted warrior and a coin legend reading ΑΤΑΙΑΣ
Reverse: depicting a mounted warrior and a coin legend reading ΑΤΑΙΑΣ
Obverse: depicting the head of Herakles
Obverse: depicting the head of Herakles

Between c. 360s and 339 BC, the Scythians were ruled by their most famous king, Ateas,[88] whose reign coincided with the growth of the kingdom of Macedonia under its king Philip II into a powerful kingdom capable of annexing much of Thrace until the Istros river.[34] Estimates for the extent of the power of Ateas range from him having united all of Scythia from the Istros to the Tanais under his power[9][15] to him being a leader of a group of Scythians who had retreated westwards under Sauromatian pressure and ruling only the western part of the Scythian kingdom.[89][14][34]

By this period, Scythian tribes had already settled permanently on the lands to the south of the Istros corresponding to the region now called the Dobruja,[81] and possibly in what is presently the Ludogorie region as well, where the people of Ateas lived with their families and their livestock. Consequently, the Tauric Chersonese and the region between the lower Istros and the Black Sea in northeastern Thrace both started being called "Little Scythia" (Ancient Greek: Μικρα Σκυθια, romanized: Mikra Skuthia; Latin: Scythia Minor).[90]

The main activities of Ateas were directed towards the Scythian border with Thrace on the Istros, so that by around c. 350 BC he had captured lands from the Getae and expanded Scythian hegemony to the lands south of the Istros[50][15] and to the Greek cities of the coast of the Black Sea and the parts of Thrace immediately south of the Istros, where he captured Kallatis and issued coins there.[19][28][14] Ateas also successfully battled the Thracian Triballi and the Dacian Histriani,[89][28][14] as well as threatened to conquer the city of Byzantion,[28] where he may also have struck his coins.[50]

Since both Ateas and Philip had been interested in the region to the immediate south of the Istros, the two kings formed an alliance against the Histriani.[91] However, this alliance soon fell apart after Ateas refused to support Philip II's advance on Byzantion, and war broke out between the Scythian and Macedonian kingdoms, ending in 339 BC in a battle at the estuary of the Istros where died the then 90 year old Ateas while Philip II was wounded,[92] after which the Macedonians captured 20,000 Scythian women and children, a large number of cattle and more than 20,000 thoroughbred horses.[93]

The Scythian kingdom had lost its new territories in Thrace and to the north of the Istros due to this defeat,[14] which allowed the Getae to cross the Istros and settle between the Pyretos and the Tyras rivers.[50] The power of Scythian kingdom was however not harmed by the death of Ateas, and it did not experience any weakening or disintegration as a result of it:[90] the Kamianka city continued to prosper and the Scythian burials from this time were still as lavishly-furnished as those of the most prosperous periods of the 4th century BC,[94][15] and a Scythian population continued to live in northeast Thrace.[50][14]

The late 4th century BC

[edit]

The defeat against Philip II would however be followed by a series of military defeats of the Scythian kingdom which would lead to it experiencing a very significant decline during the late 4th century BC.[95]

Although the experience of Philip II's military dealings with the Scythians led his son Alexander III to choose to avoid attacking the then still powerful Scythians,[96] in 335 BC Alexander III crossed the Istros into Scythian territory during his campaign against the Getae, which harmed the remaining trade networks that Pontic Olbia could still depend on.[52]

Between 339 and 329 BC, a Scythian king whose name has not been recorded fought a war against the king Pairisadēs I of the Bosporan kingdom.[19]

In 331 or 330 BC, Alexander III's general Zopyrion, who was then acting as the governor of Thrace, campaigned against the Getae and the Scythian kingdom. Although Zōpyriōn's army of 30,000 men was able to reach Pontic Olbia and besiege it, they failed to capture it, and were defeated by the Scythians, with Zopyrion himself getting killed.[97] Despite Zopyrion's defeat, his attack initiated the final decline of Olbia, and various tribes from the West such as the Celts started moving into its territories.[52]

Nevertheless, in 329 BC, the Scythian kingdom sent an embassy to Alexander at the time of his campaign in Bactria and Sogdia, after which Alexander sent an ambassador of his own to go to Pontic Scythia with the returning Scythian embassy. Alexander's ambassador came back with another Scythian embassy after he had spent the winter in Bactria. During this time, the king of Scythia died and was succeeded by his brother, Agaros, in c. 328 BC.[98]

In 313 BC, the Agaros attempted to invade the territory to the south of the Istros again, but was defeated by the Macedonian king of Thrace, the diadoch Lysimachus.[95]

In 309 BC, Agaros participated in the Bosporan Civil War on the side of Satyros II, son of Pairisadēs I, against his half-brother Eumēlos.[15] Agaros provided Satyros with 20,000 infantrymen and 10,000 cavalrymen,[76] and after Satyros was defeated and killed, his son, also named Paerisades, fled to Agaros's realm for refuge.[99]

In the early 3rd century BC, the Scythian kingdom started declining economically as a result of competition from Egypt, which under the Ptolemaic dynasty had again become a supplier of grain to Greece.[48]

End of Pontic Scythia

[edit]

In the early 3rd century BC, the Scythian kingdom faced a number of interlocking unfavourable conditions, such as climatic changes in the steppes and economic crises from overgrazed pastures and a series of military setbacks, as well as the intensifiation of the arrival from the east of the Sarmatians,[100] who launched ravaging attacks against the Scythians,[87] defeated them,[101] and captured their pastures,[102] with the smaller and more active Sarmatian groups overwhelming and subjugating the more numerous but politically static Scythians[87][101][102] With the deprivation of its pastures, which were its most important resource,[102] the Scythian kingdom suddenly collapsed,[94][14] Scythian rule over the Pontic Steppe ended,[95][103] and the Scythian capital of Kamianka was abandoned.[59][63][70]

The Sarmatian tribe responsible for most of the destruction of the Pontic Scythian kingdom were the Roxolani, who had in the 4th century BC lived the trans-Araxes region, and from there crossed the Tanais river and captured the Pontic Steppe up to the Borysthenēs,[63][84] where they may have become a mixed Scytho-Sarmatian tribe at this time.[104]

As a consequence of the sudden end of the Pontic Scythian kingdom, the material culture of the Scythians also disappeared in the early 3rd century BC,[14] with the large Scythian kurgans stopping being built and the large cities, such as the one at Gelonus, being abandoned at that time,[102] and there being no known Scythian or Sarmatian monuments from this period.[14][84] With the end of the Scythian kingdom, the peoples of the forest steppe became independent again returned to their original mixed farmer sedentary lifestyle while all Scythian elements disappeared from their culture.[105]

With the end of the Pontic Scythian kingdom, grain exports from the northern Pontic region declined drastically,[39] while Greek inscriptions stopped mentioning names of Scythian slaves, which were instead replaced by slaves of Sarmatian, Maeotian and other northern Pontic origins.[43]

Following the invasion, the Sarmatian tribes became the new dominant force of the Pontic Steppe,[95] resulting in the name "Sarmatia Europa" (lit. 'European Sarmatia') replacing "Scythia" as the name of the Pontic Steppe,[103] and the name "Sarmatians" replacing that of "Scythians" as the generic designation of the peoples of the Pontic-Caspian Steppes until the invasion of the Huns.[106]

Sarmatian pressure against the Scythians continued in the 3rd century BC,[95] so that the Sarmatians had reached as far as the city of Chersonesus in the Tauric Chersonese by 280 BC,[14] and most native and Greek settlements on the north shore of the Black Sea were destroyed by the Sarmatians over the course of the c. 270s to c. 260s BC,[107] causing the Greek cities of the north shore of the Black Sea to decline, sometimes even into desolate ruins.[108]

Around this time, the Scythians of the Tauric Chersonese had already become vassals of a Sarmatian tribe whose queen Amage allied with the city of Chersonesus. At one point, Amage intervened against these Scythian vassals of hers and executed their king for being rebellious.[109] The historicity of Amage is however unclear.[102]

In the regions to the west of the Borysthenēs, some Celtic groups crossed the Carpathians and settled down in the valleys of the Tyras and Pyretus rivers.[84] These Celts, along with the Thracian Getae and the Germanic Bastarnae from the west, were also putting the Scythians under pressure by seizing their lands to expand their own territories.[110]

By around some time between c. 220 and c. 210 BC, the Protogenes inscriptions recorded the Scythians as one of the minor groups who, along with the Sarmatian tribes of the Thisamatae and Saudaratae, were seeking shelter from the allied forces of the Celtic Galatae and the Germanic Sciri in the region of the Borysthenēs river near Pontic Olbia.[109][103]

By the early 2nd century BC, the Bastarnae had grown powerful enough that they were able to stop the southward advance of the Sarmatians along the line of the Istros river.[111]

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Sources

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